Bento Box Lunch with a Bento Momma

I’ve been so intrigued by a new method in packing lunches for my kids.

My interest had been piqued when I started following a friend of my friend Mia, on Instagram. (Mia is the “soaperstar” mama that I featured back in the summer for her all natural soaps. Mia and I have become friends since I interviewed her, and it is through her instagram feed that I became familiar with HER friend @nappykaye.

Kaye prepared a manual with a little bit of history of bento for us.

I started following Kaye on IG, then realized she blogged, and then when I asked Mia about her, she said we could invite her over for coffee one day so we could talk about the possibility of doing a “Bento Workshop” for our crafternoons. I was so excited when Kaye said she was game!!!

I was able to invest in some basic tools for beginning my Bento Boxing Foray! Thanks Kaye, for bringing them along!

Bento Boxing is a tradition that has been around much longer than just recently been popularized by Instagram and Bento Bloggers. Packing lunches using the Bento Method has actually been around since the 5th century. But according to Kaye, (who is pretty knowledgable in Bento Boxing) it is only in the 20th century that “a school bento box became a reflection of a student’s wealth. The nicer your bento, the richer you were perceived.” As with any mother who takes pride in packing her children’s lunch, we do it for proper nutrition and of course because we love and care for our kids. It’s a bonus if it intrigues my kids’ classmates and piques their interest in healthy eating too! I liken Bento to scrap booking with food. I feel like Mommas can get creative with their children’s baon (aka boxed lunch) and in the process make eating fun for their kids.

Screen shot of Kaye’s IG feed. Look at all the possibilities for bento packing!

Kaye’s philosophy in bento boxing is simple. You should use what you have on hand without having to fuss so much. This was clear when she was first showing us how to shape our rice into our owl charaben. (Although Mia and I thought we might be able to teach Kaye something, we were quickly humbled by Kaye’s knowledge and ease with which she moves about Bento.)

Charaben means character bento. How completely appropriate that Kaye chose to teach me and Mia an OWL!! (We all know how much I have loved owls since Gellibean was born:-)

Before we met, Kaye emailed me a list of ingredients we could use. Of course, I wanted to have almost everything on the list! I was so excited to put together something fun and nutritious for my kids, so we planned for an afternoon when Kaye could squeeze us in between site visits for work.

To make the shape of the owl, Kaye taught us that we can use a ziploc bag for forming the white and brown rice. Half of a hot dog from Earle’s served as the owl’s branch.

Using cheese, bread, seaweed and carrots left over from the night before that were sauteed in a little garlic and butter, we added the details to the owl charaben.

We added chicken fingers that I just picked up and fried from the Magnolia Chicken Station, (They are great when you are in a hurry.) cherry tomatoes, grapes, steamed broccoli, and corn on the cob.

Screen Grab from Kaye’s IG feed. Three little owls all in a row 🙂

Follow Kaye on IG @MOMMA_MAKES_IMBENTO, and check out her FB page for inspiration and information on everything BENTO!